THEATRE REVIEW: Kelly Spillman's "I Blame Florida" @ The Lyric Hyperion + Q&A
The audience is strapped in for an emotional ride which is harrowing, insightful, and bravely funny, leaving the theatre entirely flummoxed why they were worried about their lives in the first place.
We all gots the struggles. After all; this is L.A. (that is, all the world is L.A.!) The international center of my problems are your problems…
Whether you’re trying to pay your rent or simply get enough TikTok followers to make yourself feel good about things for maybe five short minutes. In my particular case, it’s always trying to chase that ever moving fine invisible line of “Look what I did, mommy!” and “Please help me, my self-obsession has morphed into a malignant form of Narcissism.” Same thing basically if you’re on Facebook, and who isn’t these days other than My Own Private Idaho. For eons and millenia, when I hit the solo stage myself, I was a joke-slinging stand-up. Not just verbals, but guitar bits, mixed impressions (Groucho Marx as The Godfather), and audience interaction, all enveloped by the near invisible framework of it being my last show. It wasn’t until Edinburgh Fringe 2003 when I finally had something to tell the audience. Which was basically my life as a comedian and how it led to the big Jerry Lewis disaster at The London Palladium. Why? Because everyone in real life kept asking me the same ole question over and over again. From London to New York to Hollywood, everyone in the comedy biz queried one thing of me: “Did Jerry Lewis fake his collapse on your show at The London Palladium?” In “I Eat People LIke You for Breakfast!”, thanks to co-writer & director John Dowie, I finally took the gag gag outta my comedy mouth and started fessing up the truth, which ironically was a lot funnier than any comedy bits I ever came up with. And so truth-telling became the strongest weapon in my comedy toolbox. That’s why a show about overcoming a life-threatening bout with cancer piqued my interest.
In Kelly Spillman’s “I Blame Florida”, the audience is strapped in for an emotional ride which is harrowing, insightful, and bravely funny. Recounting growing up in Florida, Spillman tells of weird Coach Cooper and the actual human dead body used to replace the proverbial frog used in dissecting class, and how she accidentally stabbed herself with a scalpel, in a school where there were no classes, only conversation and how test answers were given in advance by letter. She went along with it. I mean, why not?
Spillman becomes a stand-up and hates that everyone thinks she’s a goodie two shoes.
Her doctor asks if she’s a heroin addict: For no apparent reason! She finds out she has colon cancer spread to entire liver. Stage Four. She immediately meets up with Doctor Google, announcing on social media her prognosis: Likely death. Her inbox is suddenly flooded with cures, not one suggesting actual medicine, but everything else other than medicine. Diagnosed during the pandemic, her doctor had to mask up, but the face shield a bit much, making her feel like a leper. Chemo did anything but improve quality of life. She leaves a good job in Atlanta, started 3 teaching jobs plus side-hustles. First month of insurance stage four cancer barges into her life, making it impossible for her to even process the death sentence because of costs. The medical bills by end of month three was over $900,000. Kinda like being a reverse millionaire. Funny shit, eh?
“I plan to do this show as long as I can. Even if my cancer is still here lurking and even if I get sicker, I want to tell my story and I hope it helps people.”
Actually it is. Because above all, Kelly Spillman is not just funny, but the classic example of the philosopher queen who has returned from the magical medieval forest of bureaucracy and modern medicine, scarred and bloodied, but still possessing shining eyes like the Roman goddess Diana of wild animals and the hunt on her stallion awaiting the WTF now. Translation: She interesting. She brave. She - above all - human.
The Cancer Diagnosis Kickstarted Kelly Spillman’s Second Life
Most of us only get one chance to experience life. Kelly Spillman makes us understand that the worst thing that can happen to you can force you to reinvent yourself from scratch. Because this isn’t just another story of survival and the constant no sleep struggle for it. Cancer forced Kelly to take charge of not only her life, but the various paths she took for recovery and the unpredictable characters she chose to dance with at the most bizarre and frightening gala ball since Britney Spears went full crayzo on TikTok. In a world where heroes are come and go on a daily basis, Kelly realized she’d have to travail Mount Everest totally solo and without Instagram.
Just a taste:
Psych Professor Spillman never had therapy but joined a support group. Everyone was Zooming in from big rich houses. “I don’t recommend doing a support group in LA unless all your dreams come true.” (Big laugh.)
Friend did GoFundMe. But was feeling very sick and went to Sofi Stadium to see Pink. Then Alanis Morrissette came on stage and sang You Outta Know. Kelly felt better.
Members of cancer support group keep dying including former twice Olympian.
Kelly becomes Florida’s first female Pizza Hut delivery person. (Audience applauds and admonishes them that shouldn’t be her legacy.)
In the most poetic way, circumstance has connected a medical hero with lost souls who need her, appreciate her, and indeed are inspired by her ongoing saga.
She gets serious again. Her doctor started calling her a miracle patient and she got short-listed for surgery in one week at UCLA, jumping the six month wait. Then two surgeons rejected her, but was given a droplet of hope when they said the medical prayer: “Don't worry; there are new treatments every day.” But the show really takes a deep turn when Spillman is offered a job to teach at a prison. In the most poetic way, circumstance has connected a medical hero with lost souls who need her, appreciate her, and indeed are inspired by her ongoing saga.
Kelly Spillman has what all stage performers want: Charisma and command. After all, she’s a psych prof and is used to standing up in front of the lame and sick; why should her audience at The Lyric Hyperion in Silverlake be any different.
I’m assuming the Florida is a very weird place to grow up preamble is there out of the gate to demonstrate early on that Kelly Spillman was born into this weird world and that nothing surprises her in life is the point. I suppose the connective tissue from the Florida first chapter and the lion’s share of the show focusing on her cancer fight could’ve been made a little more clear; even just a tip of the hat line at the end of the show, like “Well at least cancer ain’t Floria!”. But why quibble with such a great performer/story-teller and an equally great story, fully enjoyed and appreciated by a full house.
All of us go to theatre for one thing and one thing only. To be reassured that our lives matter. No matter what. No matter how we critically tear ourselves down. Spillman also possesses the single most important comedy tool in the box of funny. How to, and to remember to always - connect with your audience at the basic human level first and foremost. “I Blame Florida” isn’t just a show about struggle and redemption. It is indeed a demonstration of an extremely strong willed person who lets nothing slide and who puts the brave truth above all. Above custom. Above propriety. And, most importantly: above expectation. This is a show you are definitely going to want to not just see; but experience. Because that’s what it is. An up close experience. If you don’t leave the theatre feeling WTF was I worried about in your life, you missed the entire point. Catch this show when it comes to town again IF you can get a ticket. Whether Kelly eventually makes it past that pesky beckoning St. Peter is something we’ll all have to wait to find out. In the meantime, feel blessed you’re still on the planet the same time Kelly Spillman is. And go see your doctor. Just in case.
Wishing Kelly a long life and continuing victories over all things Florida…
“Nine Questions” With Kelly Spillman:
ETV: Was this your first one-person show? If so, was it daunting?
KS: This is my first one-person show. As a stand-up comedian in LA, I am not used to being able to talk on stage for an hour. I realize many other one-person shows have props, costume changes, sound cues, music, etc. so it is daunting to try to tell my story in an hour with none of those props.
ETV: What has the L.A. story-telling circuit taught you about being vulnerable on stage and story-telling structure?
KS: I have been performing storytelling shows in LA for six years. Unlike stand-up it is ok in storytelling to not get a laugh every twenty seconds. I have taken a few storytelling classes and solo show workshops to teach me storytelling structure. I was not aware of the structure as a stand-up comedian. I appreciate that storytelling audiences in LA want to hear about your vulnerability and really want to hear your story. Audiences can be very loving and forgiving about your flaws and imperfections. It makes you more relatable.
ETV: How has your cancer diagnosis and treatment changed you and your way of thinking about life?
KS: I was always a future oriented person and cancer has ripped away my future. It has been very hard for me to live only in the present but I am finding how to stay present and adapting to that new normal. I am slowly adjusting to being OK with not being OK. I am trying to maintain as much of a "normal" life as I can. People are surprised to hear that I have been performing all through my treatment even when I was pretty ill. I don't want "cancer patient" to be my whole identity so I am trying to keep as much of my pre-cancer identity as possible.
ETV: Simply put: Where did you find the courage to do this show?
KS: I love this question but I do not see myself as courageous for doing this show. I love performing and so this was another way for me to do something I truly love. I am very passionate also about getting the word out that stage 4 cancer may not be a death sentence. I want people to know that they can find other doctors that can try to cure them if they have been given no hope from their doctors. I worry lots of stage 4 cancer patients die because they didn't know to advocate for themselves and to find oncologists/surgeons/radiologists that will think outside the box to try to save them.
ETV: Florida seems to act as a metaphor for all that’s messed up about the modern world. How did you initially equate that with your personal journey?
KS: I had a terrible home life in a trailer park growing up in Florida. I got out as soon as I could. Since I moved to Atlanta as a young adult, I had always told people I was from Atlanta. In LA, I would be introduced on stand-up shows as being from Atlanta. Then around five years ago, I started to tell jokes about growing up in Florida that always killed. I had also told a story about a bizarre dissection I did in 11th grade. Florida is always in the news for bizarre, ridiculous events and now we have a deranged Governor so I thought the name, I Blame Florida was funny. I also like that the title does not relate to my cancer journey so I wanted a way to try to connect these two things.
ETV: What is the one lesson you hope to impart to us all via “I Blame Florida”?
KS: I hope people leave this show feeling that if something bad happens to them, they will be able to get through it and even be able to find the humor in it. We are all stronger than we think and are resilient.
ETV: Tell is about Christopher Korbel’s contribution to the development of “I Blame Florida”.
KS: Chris is my boyfriend of five years who has supported me through my cancer treatments and through my solo show journey. I am lucky to heave someone who has been by my side through my whole cancer journey. I have a second person to confirm if I am remembering everything accurately.
ETV: Once you’re totally in the clear, will you still be performing the show and/or what do you envision your life to be after complete remission?
KS: Unfortunately with stage 4 cancer you are never in the clear. I would have to go 5 years with no evidence of cancer before stating that I am in remission. I am still waiting on a Signatera test result that is a blood test that can detect any cancer in the bloodstream. If that is 0, then I will get scans every three months to make sure there are no visible cancer tumors. If that test comes back positive, that means cancer is somewhere in my body. My next set of scans is in July so I am enjoying my break from chemo until those scans when I find out if I have to go back on chemo again. Even in the best case scenario, I will have these scans and always have the stress that the cancer could come back at any time. My last scans showed no tumors but that does not mean I do not have microscopic cancer cells in my bloodstream that could be multiplying because I am off of chemo. Stage 4 cancer is extremely stressful even when you appear to be winning, like my current situation. I plan to do this show as long as I can. Even if my cancer is still here lurking and even if I get sicker, I want to tell my story and I hope it helps people. I knew nothing about stage 4 colon cancer before I was diagnosed and so I am hoping to help people that don't know anything about stage 4 colon cancer or for people with cancer who feel isolated and alone. I wish I could talk about my life in the future but as of right now I am only living in the present and trying to enjoy this time off chemo until my next scans in July.
ETV: One more question: Has your sense of humor, your comedy, become darker since you were diagnosed?
KS: YES! I wanted this to be much darker. It might get there soon. My first idea for the show was to have “dark” Kelly tell part of the story and then “nice” Kelly tell the other parts but I couldn’t figure out the best way to do it. It is another reason I love my support group because we can joke about really dark things.
I Blame Florida played at The Lyric Hyperion in Silverlake, Los Angeles and plays next @ The Limelight Theatre in Atlanta May 31. More info & Tix
Follow Kelly on Instagram & X
Review and interview by Steven Alan Green for Enjoy the Veal
“Enjoy the Veal is absolutely inspired stream of consciousness! Hysterical, funny, biting, insightful, grandiose. A surreptitiously diplomatic narrative smart enough to sanely and ultimately further his own self-interests. Green is a brilliant, but fatefully undisciplined comic genius, grabbing the baton, (i.e. QWERTY keyboard in this case) from the likes of Hunter S. Thompson and Norman Mailer (Think “Fire on the Moon”). Even if you don’t follow it all, it’s a wonderful runaway train ride consisting of his painful life experiences, his attitudes, observations and especially his misgivings. Kudos and hosannas!! About THAT, there are no misgivings on our part!” - Danny & Joe, somewhere in England.